Batery fail on e-tron, 13.000 km

[BigNurse]

hello:
last friday I got a red light indicator on my car (Q7 etron), indicating that batery system fail, park the car securely. It was a disaster, the car gets totally blocked, nothing works, even no the steering wheel.
I’ve called the insurance which send a platform to move the car onto an Audi dealer.
The disaster comes even better now: they informed me that only 3 technicians in the hole Spain can repair an etron, and all are in Barcelona (just the other side of Spain, 1300 km away). Audi tells that they can move to my local dealer one of this technicians to repair the car, but no earlier than third week of January !!
What I can’t understand it’s having Audi starting to promote the etron models, only 3 technicians for giving support in the hole country ??
Sounds like a joke ! How they could expect of having customers buying this model ?
I was near to buy the “standard” TDI, but finally decided for the etron model, but now I’m started to get crazy worried about what future will be with this car....
I was totally happy with the car driving, comfort and economy of use (barely I started the diesel engine a couple of times in the month !!), but now I’m not sure what to do
Any comments or advises ?
Thanks in advance


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[FortyPlus]

That's really bad news! I trust you are in warranty.

I think I read on this forum where one e-tron owner had a problem where an electrical power cable rubbed against the body (gearbox?) and caused a main fuse to blow. If I recall it took several visits for Audi to solve this. But for that car I believe he could still use the diesel engine.?

Please keep us small numbers of e-tron owners informed. Good luck with the repair.

[Crasher]

Oh am I looking forward to electric cars.... not!

If your car was built before 09/11/15 (being a 2016 model year this is possible) then the battery pack was upgraded after this date and has been a further four times, a new one is only £13785.49..... plus fitting!

[FrenchAudi]

Oh am I looking forward to electric cars.... not!

If they are as reliable as predicted, you'll never see one in your workshop

[Crasher]

Frank Massey of the trade only Car and Accessory Trader magazine reports that 100 production plants the size of the unique “mega” battery plant operated by Tesla will be required to meet projected global demand by 2040 requiring 800000 Tonnes of Lithium PER YEAR... JUST for cars, never mind mobile phones etc. According to industry figures the world has 365 years of reserves of Lithium at 37000 tons of production per year so circa 40000000 of global reserves so that is 18 years, about 10% of oil reserves we KNOW of, it’s bloody insane!

[BigNurse]

my car was manufactured in january 2016, so it have the upgraded battery already, I think.
Audi informed me that the car will be translated to Barcelona, to their Technical Center there, to be repaired by their own staff. They promised a substitute car during the period of the repairing time.
They think than moreover the battery itself, according the data transmited by the car, it’s a fault on some electronic control central.
The battery was in fine condition, as mileage after charging was very fine (never less than 46 km of autonomy, and some times more, even 60 !!!)
So, now, only thing to do it’s keep waiting....
I’ll keep you posted

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[FortyPlus]

my car was manufactured in january 2016, so it have the upgraded battery already, I think.
Audi informed me that the car will be translated to Barcelona, to their Technical Center there, to be repaired by their own staff. They promised a substitute car during the period of the repairing time.
They think than moreover the battery itself, according the data transmited by the car, it’s a fault on some electronic control central.
The battery was in fine condition, as mileage after charging was very fine (never less than 46 km of autonomy, and some times more, even 60 !!!)
So, now, only thing to do it’s keep waiting....
I’ll keep you posted

Interesting on the range you mention. As I am in Ireland (generally cooler than Spain) I see now in December 38-40Km of range and in summer have also seen > 60Km.

I expect there are lots of factors at work: a higher load of accessories, heaters, lights, wipers, etc etc in wintertime
But also an underlying issue that the battery technology works best around 25C.

I note that the recent launch for journalists for the Audi e-tron was in UAE, but this was never referenced as significant by any review I read...( Is there an emoji for a pig slurping at a trough...)

It would be interesting to see what the range showed at 4 Deg C

[BigNurse]

new update:
According to Audi, after checking carefully they’ve found that one cell of the battery it’s wrong, gets shortcutted and collapse all the electronic system. Audi will replace on warranty all the full battery pack.
They told that this it’s the second car with a problem similar to this in Europe that they have registered till now. Only two cars and one of them it’s mine ��
A certified technician from Audi will come to the local dealer to install and setup the new battery, instead to move the car to Barcelona Technical Center.
Schedule time to have my car back it’s the third week of january, they said.
A courtesy car till repairing it’s finished will be supplied by Audi Class
I’ll keep you updated

[srbsq7]

Oh am I looking forward to electric cars.... not!

Me neither, they look tricky to fill up.

https://youtu.be/vHPg2Mi2roI

[Crasher]

The problem is battery issues like this will become increasingly common and when out of warranty there will be people bodging them up and that’s when the deaths will start, I already know of one bloke repairing them on the cheap. Also I can’t imagine a cheap electric hatchback half way through its warranty will get the kind of attention this Q7 is getting. The power down and restart procedure takes three hours and requires special training and protective clothing, in 2030 when cars like this are over a decade old and on their 5th “budget minded” owner it is going to be chaos, Lithium Ion battery fires coming to a house near to you in the next decade....